{{Competition for air passenger traffic in East Africa is expected to grow in coming months as two international players target key destinations.}}<\/p>\n
Low-cost airlines fastjet and flydubai both announced new routes this week to take advantage of growing demand in the region as well as the withdrawal of Air Uganda\u2019s international air operator\u2019s licence in June this year.<\/p>\n
The move will have an impact on established carriers like Kenya Airways (whose low-cost arm, JamboJet, was launched in February), which had picked up traffic on former Air Uganda routes. <\/p>\n
The suspended airline used to fly from Uganda\u2019s Entebbe airport to Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Bujumbura, Kigali, Mogadishu, Kilimanjaro, Mombasa and Juba.<\/p>\n
On Monday, fastjet PLC said it has begun selling tickets \u201cfrom as low as $50 plus government taxes\u201d for flights between Dar es Salaam and Entebbe, which are to begin on September 16. <\/p>\n
The pan-African airline, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom, says apart from introducing the \u201cmarket stimulating fares\u201d, it will offer the only direct air link between the two towns with a frequency of four flights a week from the end of the month.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince Air Uganda ceased flying, the fares offered by other carriers for flights in and out of the country have risen steadily,\u201d said the airline.<\/p>\n
Fastjet, which has its operational base in Dar es Salaam and plans to move it to Kenya once it obtains its licence, flies to Kilimanjaro, Mbeya, Mwanza and Zanzibar, all in Tanzania, as well as Harare in Zimbabwe, Johannesburg (South Africa) and Lusaka (Zambia).<\/p>\n
The Dubai Aviation Corporation, trading as flydubai, on Saturday announced three new routes \u2014 to Bujumbura, Entebbe and Kigali \u2014 beginning this month. <\/p>\n
The airline, which already serves six African destinations from Dubai, has also obtained the rights to carry passengers between Uganda and Burundi.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlydubai becomes the first national carrier from the United Arab Emirates to fly to Rwanda and Burundi,\u201d Chief Executive Ghaith Al Ghaith said. <\/p>\n
He adds that his airline is the only one offering business class between Dubai and Burundi. He hopes to win a chunk of the region\u2019s tourism and trade traffic.<\/p>\n
Within Africa, flydubai currently has scheduled flights to Alexandria in Egypt, Khartoum and Port Sudan in Sudan, Juba in South Sudan, Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa as well as Djibouti’s capital Djibouti.<\/p>\n
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